Preface

摘要

Greetings and many thanks from the desk of your editor. I feel both privileged and excited to be the Editor-in- Chief of this prestigious journal. Recent Patents on Medical Imaging consistently aims to publish leading edge articles on all the latest advances on medical imaging innovations. I hope the readers are making frequent use of this valuable resource and are finding it helpful in their clinical practice. The features of the articles in this volume touch upon developments in the spectrum of activities related to medical imaging as applied to areas of cardiovascular diseases emphasizing those imaging techniques that are relevant in clinical practice. It will focus not only on the Translational aspects of cardiovascular imaging, but also the Biological, Geometric and Biomechanical Factors Influencing Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Rupture Risk, the Quantification of Shear Stress and Geometric Risk Factors in Carotid Atherosclerosis and the Tomographic Imaging Methods and Gated Technique in Nuclear Cardiology. Imaging as applied to cardiovascular diseases is tremendously important in that it can facilitate and enhance diagnosis, surgical planning, clinical evaluations, patient management and therapeutic decision-making. By harnessing the recent advances in cardiovascular biology, imaging has been advanced beyond its traditional anatomical domains. New imaging modalities and the incorporation of multimodality imaging, represent promising instruments that will ultimately result in improvements in our clinical practice. However, each of the imaging modalities described herein has its advantages and limitations, which need to be properly understood. The Editorial Board and myself will continue to provide our readers with meaningful articles on the spectrum of imaging techniques that are well written and up-to-date.